Epson has agreed with the Robustelli family to acquire 100% of the capital of Italian textile printer manufacturing company Fratelli Robustelli. The agreement aims to drive synergies and further increase customer value by expanding the scope of the two companies’ longstanding collaboration in digital inkjet textile printing.
Located in Como, the heart of the Italian and European high-quality printing textile industry, Robustelli specializes in the development, manufacture, and sale of digital inkjet textile printers, notably the Monna Lisa series, which it began developing with Epson in 2003.
The entry of Robustelli into the Epson Group will allow it to take advantage of Epson’s manufacturing capability to bring the advantages of its digital inkjet textile printers to more customers around the world. The move will assist Epson in using Robustelli’s expertise to accelerate the development of digital inkjet textile printers that further enhance the companies’ abilities to meet customer needs with a wider line-up of products. As part of the enhanced acceleration, the two companies plan to focus on joint R&D efforts to achieve this goal.
In addition to using its manufacturing network to meet this growing demand, Epson will deploy its worldwide sales and service network to provide Monna Lisa to more countries and regions around the world.
Sunao Murata, COO of Epson’s Professional Printing Operations Division, is scheduled to be appointed as president of Robustelli. Murata commented: “We will work closely with our colleagues at Robustelli to take Monna Lisa to the next level and remain leaders in the field.”
“Our cooperation with Epson led to the development of Monna Lisa, an industrial digital textile printer that is today a market benchmark for high-quality textile printing. The combination of our respective skills is the natural conclusion of a process of innovation to satisfy customers in Italy and the rest of the world,” said Valerio Robustelli, one of the proprietors of F.lli Robustelli.
